1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital systems, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for enabling a user to have a custom desired experience while accessing an electronic file.
2. Related Art
An electronic file generally contains many bytes of data, which can be accessed by corresponding user applications. For example, a word processing software (such as MS-Word software and Word Perfect software, widely available in the market place) may enable a user to edit/add/delete the content of a corresponding electronic file. As another example, an electronic file may contain data representing music, and the data may be accessed by technologies such as MP3-players to play the music. As may be readily appreciated, the user is provided access to a substantial portion (e.g., not less than a few hundred bytes, at least in situations more than that much content is present in the electronic file).
There are generally various experience attributes that are controlled by a hardware and software using which an electronic file is accessed. For example, with respect to word processing software, various visual features and sounds are controlled by the word processing software, the document internal attributes, and/or the operating system on which the word processing software is supported.
In one prior word processing software implemented in MS-Windows operating system, the default display attributes (e.g., background and foreground colors, cursor shape) may be controlled by appropriate configuration of various options in the processing software. option further provides that the same display attributes as those specified for the operating system. However, the attributes specified internal to a document generally override the default display attributes. In other words, a user may specify custom desired display attributes within the document or have the software use the attributes specified by the operating system or the user application.
One problem with such an approach is that the same default attributes are applied to all the electronic files accessed using the same user application. respect to the word processing software example of above, the same default attributes are generally applied to all the documents opened using the word processing software. On the other hand, a user may wish to have different default attributes for different files (without having to change the contents of the files). In general, what is therefore needed is an approach which enables a user to have potentially a custom desired experience while accessing each document.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.